Wonder Woman Season One Recap

We’ve come to the end of season one of Wonder Woman. Of course, it was a short season, just a pilot and thirteen episodes. It’s been fun, and we’re going to be launching into season two soon, but for now we’re going to take a quick look back at season one.

I think the biggest takeaway from the first season of this show is DANG…is Lynda Carter great or what? I mean, we’ve heard complaints for years about how this character has not made the leap to the big screen yet. We’re talking one of DC’s big three characters here! Say what you want about the whole fear of female-led superhero movies…but I think a big part of it is that it’s no easy task filling Lynda Carter’s go-go boots. Yes, the series itself is a bit corny at times, but Carter so perfectly embodied the character. Smart, strong, gorgeous…she’s everything Wonder Woman should be. She’s really the primary thing that makes this series work.

Speaking of the cast, I was very impressed with the range of guest stars the series offered. There were some pretty big names in there…Cloris Leachman, John Saxon, Dick Van Patten, Red Buttons, Robert Loggia, Robert Reed, even king of the singing cowboys Roy Rogers! Sounds like an episode of The Love Boat, doesn’t it? I appreciated that most of these guests had a good grasp of what the tone of this whole series was. They weren’t camping it up, but they also weren’t taking themselves too seriously. The highlight of the guest stars, though, was undoubtedly Debra Winger as Wonder Girl. It’s hard to really call her a “guest star” here since she wasn’t a star at this point. She was getting her first big break, and she nails it. She has a lot of the same things going on that Lynda Carter does, but with wonderful comedic touch. Sadly, the producers weren’t able to offer enough ice cream and hot dogs to lure her back to play Drusila.

Overall, the World War II setting of the first season was nicely done. It certainly wasn’t the norm to do a series that was a period piece here in the late 70’s. Sure, it feels a whole lot like 1942 Washington DC by way of the Warner Brothers backlot (‘cuz it is), but it was done fairly well, all things considered.

Now going into season two some big changes will be coming our way. Remember that ABC dragged their feet renewing Wonder Woman and had it snatched away from them by CBS. They did have one condition ,though, for continuing the series…that the action be moved to present day. So, not everything is going to be a Nazi plot in the next season. It also means that Lynda Carter’s wardrobe is going to get an overhaul as Diana Prince will no longer be limited to her military issues.

So thanks for joining us for the first season of this classic show.  We’re going to be taking a few weeks off, but then we’ll be jumping right in with season two. See you then!